Story+1975-12-31+Philadelphia,+PA

“If I’d known you guys would dress like this, I wouldn’t have come (chuckles)…”
 * 31.12.75 Upper Darby, PA, intro to “Night”**

“Oh, oh, what’s happening?...yeah…these guys look so sharp... thanks...oh…Roy...Roy, gimme, gimme just a chord, alright...yeah, that’s it, got a story to tell you, gonna tell you...”
 * 31.12.75 Upper Darby, PA, intro to “Tenth Avenue Freeze- Out”**

“Dance on little sister...how’s everybody tonight, ok, yeah? (crowd cheers) that’s good...oh, oh...what?...seasons come, seasons go... you get your picture on the cover of Time and Newsweek but the bus never stops...”
 * 31.12.75 Upper Darby, PA, intro to “Does This Bus Stop at 82nd Street?”**

“I used to live in this, uh, this two-family house on this...like, main street in town...and, uh...at night my father would always...he’d lock up the front door so that the kids, like the kids had to come in through the backdoor, you know, and he’d be sitting...he’d sit all the time in the kitchen...with, uh, he’d turn out all the lights in the house and he’d just sit there...he did that for, for as long as I can remember, you know, until they moved away and...he’d just sit there and drink whatever he was drinking, you’d always see his cigarette butt in the dark and...I used to be terrified to come in through the kitchen at night because the house’d be all black except for the TV...in the front room where...where my Mom would sit and my father was sitting in the kitchen so...if you came in around, if you came in around ten, it wasn’t too bad, or at eleven, it wasn’t too bad...but if you came in around one o’clock...after he’d been sitting there for a while...just drinking for a while, it’d be scary, I guess...so...I’d come in about...I’d come in late, you know, and I’d, I’d slick my hair back tight as I could so he couldn’t see how long it was or nothing and, uh...I’d hope I could sneak by, like sneak through the kitchen before, you know, before he’d catch me ...so I’d sneak in the backdoor and just as I, just about as I got through, he’d call me and tell to come sit down for a minute, that he wanted to talk to me...first we wouldn’t be talking about nothing special, just how I was doing...you know...then he’d start screaming at me and I’d start...and I’d start screaming back at him, he’d be telling me all the time what a bad world it was...I’d be telling him all the time how it was my life, you know...”
 * 31.12.75 Upper Darby, PA, intro to “It’s My Life”**

“(?) it was like, it was the New Year’s night, just like tonight (crowd cheers) except it was about...except it was about...about four years ago, you know, four or five years ago...and...it was late, it was about, it was about ten o’clock, you know, and uh...had the gas-station next door to my house was open all night, there was, there was people hanging out in there all the time...me and Steve, there was this big, all my life, I spent 18 years of my life with this big Sinclair sign right, right, blaring in my front window, you know, and there’s like, there’s like...me and Steve were sitting out there that night on my porch, you know...and we was trying to figure out what we were gonna do...nobody invited us to any parties, if we were gonna get dressed up, you know, if we, if we were gonna get fancy and go to a club or something and, uh, we couldn’t decide and all of a sudden across the street, came walking down the street, came, like, this girl, she had feathers all in her hair, she was dressed all, she was dressed in red and she was like just, you know, was out of sight (?) I said “Steven, look at that girl,” he said (Steve: “I’m looking, Boss”) he said he was looking and we sat there...I said “Steven...that’s a nice classy looking girl, right?...a classy looking girl, must be going to a classy looking party in a classy house and being that we are classy guys (chuckles) we (crowd cheers) we should follow, you know” so we did, right, we fell in love with this girl we didn’t know and we followed her, we followed her down the street...we watched, we walked about ten blocks...pulled down this fancy street in town and she walked into this house, you know, and the guys opened the doors and you could see the fellas with the tuxedos on, right, and she walked in, we stood out there, it was about ten degrees, you know...and we’re trying to see in the window, you know...so, uh...we’re standing there, it’s cold, we’re waiting for her to come out or something…so I said “Steve, listen...won’t you go up on the porch...knock on the door, right, tell ‘em that, like, that like, like you’re the Mayor’s son or something, right” (chuckles) see, that was, that was, that was cool to him so, so he went up on the porch, knocked on the door, somebody pulled up the shade...then put the shade back down...so I snuck over, peeked in the window, right, and there she was sitting on the couch with this slick looking guy, you know, and they was all crowding around, it was about, about quarter to twelve, and we stood out there, I said “Steve, Steve, I’m in love, I got to find out what this girl’s name is”…but the fact that I could go on with this story and tell you that I did find out…and that we broke into the house and knocked everybody down, picked her up and ran down the street (crowd cheers) but…but…the real story is we gave up and went home, you see, so we never (chuckles) but anyway, we had a name for her…all the guys on my block called her Flamingo… (…) Clarence…I’ll be walking with her and we’ll be talking…about important things…be like on cloud nine…you know how it is when you just meet somebody…I will…and when she walks, she brightens up my neighbourhood… (…) Audience participation time…(Band: “Sha la la, Pretty Flamingo”)… (…) I’m gonna find her…I will…gonna find her…I’m gonna find her… I’m gonna find her…I’m gonna find her…oh yeah, I will…I’m gonna find her…I know…gonna find her…and when I do…and when I do… and when I do…and when I do…and when I do…Stevie, you know, when I do…I’m probably gonna let her walk right on by…Pretty Flamingo...”
 * 31.12.75 Upper Darby, PA, intro to “Pretty Flamingo”**

“Walking down the street…and you hear somebody coming up from behind you…”
 * 31.12.75 Upper Darby, PA, towards the end of “It’s Hard to Be a Saint in the City”**

“Last tango in Philly…”
 * 31.12.75 Upper Darby, PA, intro to “Rosalita”**

//Compiled by Johanna Pirttijärvi//